Suspected police killer believed his home had been searched illegally

Friday

Apr 13, 2012 at 3:21 PMApr 13, 2012 at 3:22 PM

GREENLAND — Cullen Mutrie, the man accused of opening fire on police officers outside his Greenland home this week, believed he was the victim of an illegal police search months earlier, according to court records filed days before the shooting.

Mutrie, 29, was found dead inside the home after a chaotic standoff that lasted hours.

An unidentified woman who was inside the home at 517 Post Road when police arrived to execute a search warrant Thursday evening was also later found dead.

At the time of the shooting, Mutrie was facing four felony drug charges that stemmed from a police action at his home in July 2010. A trial by jury was scheduled to begin later this year.

Two days before the shooting, which left Greenland police chief Michael Maloney dead, officials at the Rockingham Superior Court received a motion from Mutrie's attorney asking the judge to strike all evidence seized from Mutrie's home during the 2010 search.

Stephen Jeffco, Mutrie's attorney, confirmed on Friday his client believed the evidence used against him in court was obtained improperly by local police.According to the motion to suppress evidence, the search took place on July 24, 2010, following a domestic dispute between Mutrie and his girlfriend. Officers from the Greenland Police Department were dispatched to assist, and upon arriving at Mutrie's home, they arrested Mutrie "without any real investigation" on a simple assault charge, according to the motion.

Mutrie's girlfriend was granted an emergency restraining order while police were still at the scene. An officer then told Mutrie police would need to confiscate his firearms as one of requirements imposed by the restraining order.

In the motion, Mutrie's attorney argued that Mutrie was not afforded the opportunity to relinquish his weapons to police pending his release on bail, and instead, an officer "threatened to kick (Mutrie's) door down," and "keep him in jail," if Mutrie did not consent to a search.

Mutrie then signed a consent form allowing Greenland police to enter his residence and confiscate guns and ammunition, according to the motion, which states his consent was not "free from duress and coercion."

According to court records, police allegedly discovered quantities of the steroids boldenone, nandrolone, trenbolone and stanozolol in Mutrie's possession. He was indicted the following year on the charges, which carry penalties of of 3-1/2 to seven years in prison.

Jeffco said Mutrie was also facing a single assault charge stemming from the 2010 incident.

According to officials in Portsmouth District Court, a drug task force was executing a search warrant at Mutrie's home on Thursday when the shooting took place. The documents associated with the search warrant have been impounded by court officials, according to a court clerk.

The officers involved in the incident were part of the state attorney general's drug task force.

After the officers arrived at about 6 p.m., Mutrie opened fire. Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was killed and four detectives from other departments were injured. Two remained in intensive care Friday; the other two were treated and released.

Authorities spoke to Mutrie a short time after the shooting from outside the home but things soon went silent, said Attorney General Michael Delaney. Around 2 a.m., a tactical team placed a robot equipped with a video camera in the home, and it detected the bodies. Authorities were still trying to determine when Mutrie and the woman died, but Delaney said they both died of gunshot wounds in either a murder-suicide or double suicide.